Gil Hatton Has Seen Many Changes In Cycling's Training Techniques

Gibby "The Bear" Hatton had more battles on his bicycle than Clint Eastwood had in the movies.

"Everybody called him `The Bear' because they though he was so mean," Terri recalled one night. "I thought that was a joke. I always called him my Teddy Bear."

Today, Gibby is known as Gil, and sprinters for the U.S. National Cycling Team call him coach.

"I was only 20 or 21 years old when I started coaching the Air Products Developmental Program back in 1976," Hatton remembers.

He was a racer in those days, a sprinter and a keirin specialist. He basically made a living on the Japanese keirin circuit from 1984 through 1991. Japanese bet on keirin races the way U.S. gamblers bet on thoroughbreds.

"What did I know then? It's not like the coaching I do now. Basically back then I was just teaching them basic skills and general riding."

Today's coaching is a lot more technical. In addition to tactics, bio-mechanic knowledge is a necessity. Riders must be powerful (strength times speed) and must be able to harness their power for maximum acceleration and maximum maneuverability.

Hatton teamed with current Lehigh Valley Velodrome director Pat McDonough back in the mid-80s to coach the juniors at the LVV after McDonough won a silver medal in the 1984 Olympics. Their students included world champion Marty Nothstein and national champions Janie Quigley and Jessie Grieco.

"And Rene Duprel," Hatton volunteered. "She won a silver in the sprint at worlds in 1990. Connie Young won that year. She works on Wall Street now. I really miss her."

Strong and tough are words opponents used to describe Hatton as a racer, but those words miss the cut of a man who is lonesome for his family while training the U.S. team in San Diego, Los Angeles, or on tour with the team in Colombia or Cuba.

Last March, in one of Hatton's proudest yet most confusing moments, he was at the starting line of the sprint final at the Pan-American Championships, holding up the bicycle of another protege, Marcello Arrue, who was racing for Chile. Arrue's opponent in the race was none other than another Hatton disciple, Nothstein, who copped the gold.

Hatton was serving as the coach of the Chilean National Team at the time. Arrue, a U.S. citizen, was competing for the birthland of his parents. Today, both Arrue and Hatton are with the U.S. team.

"Coaching is very different today than back in 1976, that's for sure," Hatton said with a chuckle. "It's been refined and continues to be refined.

"When I trained, it was basically going for a ride with Marty on the bike. He was like 16, 17, the age of one of my juniors, Jason Orowitz. Marty would be there every day so I'd say, `C'mon kid, let's go.' I'd give him some distance and chase him down. That's how our whole thing started, more like a family situation. We created a family of peers."

Hatton said he got serious about coaching in 1992, when he and McDonough took Nothstein to the Olympic Trials.

"Through the Velodrome, there were many winters where we'd train at Rodale Press with like 25 kids. Once we started getting serious performances from Marty, we started taking it seriously.

"Marty would travel internationally and ask a lot of questions, pick up some new techniques and bring them back. We read and added things ourselves."

Hatton is the assistant U.S. sprint coach to Andrzej Bek, a bronze medalist in the tandem for Poland at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

Hatton was in charge of the team for a few weeks at the end of May while Bek was out of the country. Hatton took the team through rigorous workouts, combining sprints on the track with road work, followed by weight training sessions, then evening hours on turbo trainers.

Hatton called on John Graham of Allentown Sports Medicine and Human Performance Center to develop a weight program for Nothstein.

The same principles have been applied to other members of the U.S. team, all of whom train with weights to build the explosive strength that is crucial for success in velodrome cycling.